Old-Fashioned Gingerbread with Molasses Whipped Cream

Polly Tafrate of South Salem, New York, writes: "I've taken dozens of cooking classes over the years, but some of my best lessons in the kitchen have come from my husband's family. His sister and his mother have shared many delicious recipes with me, including the ones here."

This cake brought back warm memories of growing in New England in the 50's and my grandmother's ginger bread. Followed this recipe with the addition of using more ginger and addition of cloves. Nice flavor and texture. As others my cake had the fallen middle it was cooked just fallen. Can't explain the science behind this. Comparing Grams recipe the difference is the butter and boiling water. Need to the test kitchen

Bleh --Maybe it's just me, but I'm not too fond of the flavor of this cake. I love spice & I love molasses, but even though there were plenty of those two things in this recipe there was still something 'offputting' about the flavor of this to me. The gingerbread tasted almost bitter and not very sweet even though there is plenty of sugar. To be fair I didn't make the whipped cream we ate the cake plain the first night. In an attempt to improve the cake I made some cream cheese maple frosting for the rest of this cake, which didn't really improve it much. This one wasn't a winner for me, but it was for many other reviewers. I won't be making it again. Also, the batter was a little strange to make with the addition of the boiling water at the end, but the cake did set despite the watery batter and did form a cake like texture.

With the additional
spices recommended
by others (2 t
cinnamon, 1 t
ginger, and 3/4 t
cloves), this
gingerbread had the
right flavor. I was hoping for something fairly dense, however, and even
though I made the
sugar about 1/3 dark
brown sugar and 1/4
of the flour whole
wheat, it was still
a little cakey for
my taste.
It did fall in the
middle. I cooked it
in a round, 9" pan.
A google search
suggested that a bigger
pan would allow the
batter to spread out
more and not
collapse in on
itself. But then it
would likely be even
more cakey. The
fallen middle didn't
affect the texture,
and it even looked
kind of cool.

This is quite yummy and not too sweet---it's just right and hard to have only one piece. At the suggestion of other reviewers, I increased the cinnamon to 1.5 tsp and ginger to 1 tsp. While baking, mine slightly overflowed my 8x8 pan, so you may want to cut back the batter by 1/4-1/2 cup if you don't use the recommended 9x9. Like another reviewer, mine came out slightly sunken in the middle, but it didn't seem to have any effect on the texture, it just didn't look picture perfect. This is wonderful as is, but to make it more fancy, next time I will add chopped candied ginger.

I've been making this gingerbread for several years now-ever since my neighbor brought it over as a thank you gift. Once you've tasted this, you can never buy a gingerbread cake mix again.We love it with the molasses whipped cream or with peppermint ice cream during the holidays. I, too, have had the center fall. Anyone have any ideas why this might occur?

I read this recipe wrong and forgot to get whipping cream. I used lowfat milk instead and it came out fine- just like a cake. I don't know what the difference would be with the cream, but this was very tasty and I would make again with milk.

This cake is wonderful! Exactly what I wanted to kick off the holiday season. Light, moist texture, and a rich, wonderful taste. I used dark molasses--I love molasses--and a little more spice than the recipe called for. I also used an 8x8 inch pyrex instead of the 9x9 metal pan. I also didn't bother with the whipped cream. The cake was wonderful on its own. I will definitely be making this again.

Memphis - When I've doubled the recipe
but not used (2) 9x9x2, but rather made
it in a slightly larger pan and a
little deeper with batter, I had the
same thing happen. No other time...
I've also used this recipe for various
sized cupcakes and muffins. Fantastic!

Really nice gingerbread after doubling all the spices. Both times I've baked this, I've ended up with a depression in the center of the cake. Oven is the appropriate temp, cooking evenly, etc. Has anybody had the same experience with this? No matter, just cover it up with whipped cream! (Don'[t bother with the molasses whipped cream)

Fantastic! Everyone loves it and claims it is the best or near-best they've ever had. I used dark molasses, which certainly changes the complexity, but left all else the same. I also doubled the recipe and had no problems. I might add a bit more ginger next time, but not much and I wouldn't change anything else

This Gingerbread turned out great. I made it for Sunday Brunch. I added 1/8 cup minced crystallized ginger, used 2 tbs cinnamon, 1.5 tsp ground ginger, 0.5 tsp ground cloves, and instead of boiling water used a 1/2 n 1/2 mixture of hot coffee and orange juice. It was rich, moist and flavorful. My husband had 3 pieces.

fantastic. doubled the ginger and cinnamon and kept the rest as is. served with vanilla whipped cream and agree with previous reviewers that the molasses cream would have been overkill. even prepared two days ahead, the gingerbread was moist and delicious.

I have to agree with the cook from Cambridge. I went with the suggestions from the reviews to add more spice and found it out of balance although the moisture and texture were very good. Next time, I'll try somewhere in between with the spice.

I was rather disappointed by this recipe, given the reviews. I found the texture to be quite nice, but even with the spice improvements suggested by other reviewers the balance was off. It had far too strong an aftertaste, and was missing that sort of quintessential gingerbread flavor.

This was excellent, especially with the suggested addition of candied/crystallized ginger, which gave it extra zing. I wasn't thrilled with the molasses whipped cream though, as it overpowers the cake. Plain whipped cream or vanilla ice cream works great.

Mmm mmm good! This was simple and delicious. I highly recommend the molassas whipped cream. I heeded a few earlier comments and included approximately 1/3 cup of minced crystallized ginger to the batter. Boy, did the house smell good!

I really love this recipe, which is very easy to make. I ate 3 small pieces last night. I did not make the whipped cream with maple syrup. I think that is over-kill.
I did add certain excellent additions recommended by a previous reviewer:
A total of:
2 tablespoons of cinnamon
1 3/4 teasoons of ground ginger
Plus:
1 orange zest, minced, (or grated with a microplane zester)
1/2 cup minced candied ginger (that I minced up in my cuisinart,and added to the mixture right after I creamed the butter and the sugar and the molasses.)

Reading this recipe immediately made me crave a slab of warm gingerbread with whipped cream (a favorite childhood treat). I found the results nice and moist, with great texture. The taste itself wasn't quite what I was looking for (I prefer it to be less sweet, and a bit more strongly spiced; this one tastes mainly of sugar and molasses) I had upped the ginger a little, but another time I'd go with a previous reviewer's comments and add additional spices for a more complex flavor.